Yet another installment of the random things that make me smile. This one might be a little less random than others, but I think it still counts.
So, you’re sitting in church, listening to your pastor talk about wonderful things that the Bible has to say about Grace, Truth, Love, Justice, and all the other wonderful things that Jesus cares about, when suddenly, out of nowhere you hear the gut-wrenching screams of a baby who needs food, sleep, a change, relief from the pain of that first tooth, or just a bit of attention. The guy sitting in the row in front of you sighs. I smile.
I don’t have kids, and I probably won’t have kids for a while yet, so maybe I’m still just young and uninitiated when it comes to babies crying, but I really think it’s a beautiful thing to hear a baby being a baby. Now, if I was the parent of a baby crying in church, I should hope that I would proudly slip out the back to tend to my child, a little bit out of courtesy to the rest of the people in church, but mostly because my baby needs something from me.
I also think it’s a good test of a pastor when babies make noise in the middle of the sermon. It’s not a litmus test or anything, nothing so huge it would make me lose confidence in my pastor, but a test still. How does the pastor react? What is the look on his or her face when the baby screams out? Is it a look of restrained anger, a look of distracted annoyance, or maybe a look of joy? I hope it’s a look of joy.
Babies are babies, and they really don’t do much other than eat, sleep, poop, and cry until they get a little older. Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that they all have such a simple and beautiful life. They don’t have to worry about anything. They just cry and their parents take care of whatever their needs are. I sometimes wish my life were that simple. All I have to do is cry and somebody will take care of my needs; I don’t even have to tell them what they are.
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